5 Common Blogging Mistakes Which Will Haunt You

When thinking about common blogging mistakes you may ponder the traditional boo-boos: spamming your readers with thin posts, not building an email list and doing no market research before you start blogging.

All are grave errors but I wanted to knife into a few trickier mistakes that may trip you up without you even knowing it.

Note; I have personally made all these mistakes over the course of months or…..gasp…..years. I’m semi-embarrassed to say I still have a few mental blocks in some of these areas but I’m getting there. I’ve also been circling the globe through my blogging efforts for the past 5 years so I’m doing enough smart things blogging-wise to create a pretty neat lifestyle for myself.

These mistakes are insidious. Sneaky. Deceiving. Like the false promise of looking outside here in Cyprus and seeing a windy day; you think it’s cool and breezy but the desert-like, sauna-type environment slaps you in the face with reality when you step outside. The cool breezes were an illusion. Blowing heat is the reality. Just like when you appear to be avoiding these blogging mistakes but reality tells another story.

Blogging For Daily Profits to Make Ends Meet

A certain group of bloggers takes a “meal ticket” approach to blogging. Instead of thinking long term they focus on trying to squeeze $5 out of today. Then $3.50 out of tomorrow. If they get enough money to eat they can worry about rent near the end of the month. The only thing that matters is making your meal money today. Then tomorrow.

This crowd fails to see that if you’re driven by trying to make a pittance each day you’ll do silly stuff which leads to extended failure and misery online. Someone who gives off this desperate energy will repel the successful ideas and successful folks who can take them up 5 or 10 or 50 levels quickly.

Practical tip: develop a long range vision. Set long term goals. Don’t make blogging your meal ticket. Make your blog a vehicle through which you can create a freeing, fun lifestyle. I’ve lived in places I barely knew existed 8 years ago because even amidst my countless blogging mistakes I still had a long term vision in place. Said vision helped me connect with hyper successful bloggers like Zac who expanded my reach by leaps and bounds.

Trying to Build Your Blog Only through Your Owned Online Real Estate

Trying to build your blog by focusing 100% on your blog alone is like trying to scream out loud after you’ve lost your tongue. Nobody will hear you. Yet legions of well-intentioned bloggers believe that ignoring guest posting and blog commenting and social media marketing is the smart way to go.

I learned this lesson the hard way. To the tune of year’s worth of struggle, heartache and misery. I was an idiot because I felt publishing a cyber-diary would net me a fortune. But nobody else was reading my cyber diary. Only me.

Eventually, I discovered that blogger outreach is 1/2 of the blogging success equation.

Something special happens when you meet a fellow blogger in person. Something clicks. You build a stronger bond.

Yet countless bloggers avoid “in person” meets through individual sessions or group meet ups by making excuses. Big time mistake. Because you’re skipping the chance to build a strong friendship and powerful emotional bond with a fellow blogger. Said powerful bonds can take you to greater heights through your mastermind session and hey, you become that much more memorable when you meet a fellow blogger in person because they become more human to you.

I’ve also met blogging buddies in Nepal, India and Thailand during my journeys. So much fun!

Being Driven Primarily by Vanity Metrics Versus Helping Folks

Do you recall the Alexa craze from a few years ago? How about bloggers who drank the Page Rank Punch? Wow. Have those vanity metrics ever faded into the sunset.

A shockingly high number of bloggers devote a ridiculously significant portion of their energies to *getting* (stats, metrics, comparisons, rankings, etc) versus *giving.* Naturally, these stats-obsessed bloggers usually fail to make an impact because you can’t devote most of your energy to outcomes and also write super helpful, thorough blog posts, guest posts and comments.

Here’s your prescription, stat sick bloggers: give, help, and give some more. Hop onto a G Plus blogging community. Share a valuable blogging tip. Ask if your twitter followers need blogging help. Follow up on their questions. Get so busy with helping people that you care less and less about metrics. You can still use vanity metrics as a light benchmark without getting obsessed over ’em.

Do any of these common blogging mistakes haunt you? Which ones?

What are you doing to correct these mistakes?

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9 Comments

You are spot on. I can definitely relate to the last one. I got on this Google Analytics craze within past couple of years. Mainly because it was hard for me to comprehend when I first started blogging.

But now I’m more focused on my audience by narrowing down my niche. It’s a continuous process, but at least I’m more focused on what’s more important without being the hamster in a wheel.

That hamster in the wheel analogy is perfect. I too took that journey, from not caring at all about about metrics in the beginning to caring too much, to simply getting clearer on whom I’m blogging for.

Been a fun and frustrating journey at times but fascinating too.

I’m happy to see you’re getting clearer. When we see the end in mind or, the ideal reader, we can better write for them. Both parties benefit from this clarity.

I am getting there my friend. Slowly but surely 😉 Going forward, I’ll be more scientific, and will focus on doing longer-form, SEO-style, less frequent posts on my blog with more guest posting and thorough blog commenting. I’m actually enjoying the scientific stuff for the first time in 8 years, without getting bogged down by it.

Hi Ryan,
Terrific posts and all the mistakes you highlighted here often go unnoticed.
We become so busy in our own schedules and goal-getting that we forget to connect and meet up our peers in person.

Meeting people in the same field can always have a positive effect and help us learn more from them.

Vanity metrics, thou art knave!
That is what I say to myself every now and then. With my blog, DigitalGYD, I always aim to help my audience and share whatever I think I know about a given topic. Of course I measure my stats but only to optimize and make the content better.
No metric is ever more important than the user satisfaction.

Your last line is the perfect wrap up; no stat beats a happy reader. No metric beats a satisfied customer, a person who solved their problem or lived their dream because of your blog posts, and eBooks and courses and videos.

As for meets, I recall meeting Nirmala and Shameem Thaba in Chennai, friends in Kathmandu, Zac in NJ, 2 friends in Bali, and friends in Thailand. What a rush, making connections with these fellow bloggers.

I missed a meetup in philly this past weekend and I live half hour outside Philly. So this leads to my question for the blog author or anyone of you commenters. Is there a website that lists where wordpress meetups are at with dates and stuff? I had previous plans and couldn’t go to the one in philly but if I can see dates for months in advance I could actually go to one. I’m not a big time player in WordPress but I feel that I could benefit from going to one and meeting bloggers that I look up to and is subscribed to there lists.

The one I was referring to in phillly was for genesis framework meetup. Either New Jersey or Philly is the only states I will travel to as i’m unable right now to leave my apartment for more then 2 days at a time for personal reason’s where I need to stay close to home.

Making mistakes is common among bloggers. But learning from your mistakes is the key to online success.

Most people get it wrong. They start with the intention of making money and they create content to generate traffic. They then stuff their content with useless keywords. The result? They don’t see any traffic.

They eventually quit if they don’t see enough results. That’s how 99% of the blogs fail miserably.

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